The present invention relates generally to a vehicle powertrain control system, and more particularly, a location-based vehicle control system that regulates powertrain operation based on powertrain operating parameters.
As more vehicles located in urbanized areas of the word compete for increasingly scarce resources (e.g., highways, fuel, and pollution quotas), municipalities have an interest and opportunity to encourage driving behavior that is both environmentally and socially conscientious. Municipalities currently monitor traffic patterns and congestion to obtain an indicator for influencing driver behavior. For example, municipalities may increase toll rates in certain areas and at certain times of day based on traffic volume to facilitate a different use of the limited transportation resources.
To date, only manual solutions are available for mitigating the environmentally and socially conscientious consequences caused by the limited transportation resources. For example, highway congestion and pollution have been addressed by adding high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to at high-traffic urban highways. Further, the flow of traffic traversing the HOV lanes can be controlled based on the time of day. However, manual solutions have been traditionally implemented regardless of the operating parameters of the engine. Conventional powertrain systems, therefore, do not apply municipality location-based policies according to vehicle powertrain operating parameters.